Freedom Caucus endorses revised ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday announced it will back the GOP's healthcare plan now that an amendment allowing states to opt out of key ObamaCare rules is included.

The group of roughly 30 hard-line conservatives held out for weeks, scuttling a planned House vote on the bill last month after it became clear there was't enough Republican support to pass it.

The group said it sees the new amendment, brokered by Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and centrist Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), as the best option short of fully repealing the 2010 law.

"While the revised version still does not fully repeal Obamacare, we are prepared to support it to keep our promise to the American people to lower healthcare costs," the Freedom Caucus said in a statement.

"We look forward to working with our Senate colleagues to improve the bill. Our work will continue until we fully repeal Obamacare."

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/330681-freedom-caucus-endorses-revised-obamacare-repeal-bill

This will die in the Senate assuming it gets that far.

[Demsrule86]

1. Start calling folks...can't allow this.

[still_one]

2. New Version Of Obamacare Repeal Would Gut Pre-Existing Condition Guarantee

"Apparently yanking away the funds that allow millions of people to get health insurance isn’t enough for some House Republicans.

Now they also want to gut the Affordable Care Act’s protection for people with pre-existing conditions.

Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) on Tuesday formally unveiled an amendment to the American Health Care Act, the bill to repeal Obamacare that Republicans tried to get through the House last month. The amendment, which HuffPost’s Matt Fuller first reported last week, is the product of negotiations among key Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence.

A main goal of the proposal is to win over conservative House members who last month opposed the GOP repeal bill because, in their view, it still left too much of the 2010 health care law in place. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, helped to craft the amendment. And although he has not yet declared support for it publicly, a few other conservatives have signaled they may be ready to switch from no to yes.

It’s easy enough to see why. If enacted, it would allow states to re-create the conditions that existed before the Affordable Care Act took effect ― a time when insurance premiums were cheaper, chiefly because insurers didn’t have to pay the big medical bills of people with serious conditions.

At the same time, the new proposal leaves intact most of the initial bill’s big financial changes. Those include shifting the law’s health insurance subsidies, which would offer less help to poor people, and dramatically cutting funds for Medicaid, which would free up money for tax cuts for the wealthy.

But conservative dissension wasn’t the only obstacle to passage last time around.

Moderate Republicans also objected to the bill, citing, among other things, the huge loss of insurance coverage it would cause. The Congressional Budget Office predicted that the number of uninsured Americans would climb by 24 million if the law took effect ― partly because people would lose financial assistance they need to pay for health insurance, and partly because people depending on Medicaid would no longer be eligible for it.

Instead of addressing those concerns ― say, by pulling back on the huge Medicaid cut ― this proposal seems to make repeal even less palatable to moderates. By gutting the protection for people with pre-existing conditions, the proposal attacks a feature of the health care law that has been wildly popular, even with Republicans. It also violates a key promise that virtually every Republican, including President Donald Trump, has made repeatedly."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-repeal-pre-existing-conditions_us_5900124fe4b0026db1dc423b?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

These people are truly evil